Providence Public Library hires first new executive director in more than 30 years

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Providence Public Library is getting its first new executive director in more than three decades, as it embarks on strategic planning to move PPL forward.Jack Martin, 39, whose experience...

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By
KAREN LEE ZINER
Posted Dec. 26, 2013 @ 9:55 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Providence Public Library is getting its first new executive director in more than three decades, as it embarks on strategic planning to move PPL forward.

Jack Martin, 39, whose experience includes 11 years at the New York Public Library, will start his new job on Jan. 13.

Martin will replace Dale Thompson, whose 34 years at PPL included 25 as executive director.

“We’re going to start a new strategic planning process right when I get there,” at the board of trustees’ direction. “It’s going to be a new, exciting, energetic time,” Martin said Thursday in a phone interview from London, where he and his husband were spending the holidays.

“We are looking for stakeholders to get involved” in the planning, including library users, staff, and city residents and others, he said.

“I’m just really excited to come back to Providence. It’s a place I’ve always loved. I have so many friends and colleagues there,” said Martin, who worked at the Central Library in the art and music department, and at the Washington Park branch as a children’s specialist, between 1999-2001.

Robert K. Taylor, PPL’s board of trustees chairman, said the board selected Martin from a nationwide pool of “very strong candidates” to lead the private, independent nonprofit library — an institution in Providence since 1900. (The PPL ran the Central Library and nine branches until July 2009: the city now operates the branches).

“I think we were very impressed with his background and experience. It had a lot to do with areas that I think are going to be very important for libraries going forward, including innovative library programming and young adult services,” Taylor said of Martin. “Beyond that, we were very impressed with his energy and enthusiasm.”

Meanwhile, Thompson said she and her husband are bidding Rhode Island goodbye, and will roam the country in a new custom-built, Air-Stream trailer for the next few years.

“We’ve sold our house and gotten rid of most of our things and we’re just going to be traveling around the country,” Thompson said in a phone interview on Thursday.

“Then we’ll probably find a place that we like, and settle,” most likely on the West Coast where her husband is from, and where she started her library career, Thompson said.

Thompson cited the library’s National Award for Library Service in 2001 as one of PPL’s prouder moments during her tenure. “We were only the second urban library to get the award. It was a really wonderful recognition of the service provided to the community,” she said.

Thompson declined to discuss a tumultuous period during her tenure — including public protests in 2004 over significant salary raises Thompson and other top administrators had received in the years leading up to layoffs; reduced hours at Central Library, and other restructuring.

That, she said, “is in the past.”

Thompson praised PPL’s development of a new revenue stream, by using the Central Library as an events venue, including for weddings, galas, corporate meetings, and conferences. “People are thrilled” to be able to use the library for such events, she said.

“The Providence Public Library is in a really good space right now. I feel this is a good time to leave,” Thompson said. “The library is set firmly on a path to move forward, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Martin’s 11 years at the New York Public Library included overseeing cultural and educational programming for adults, teens and children in the system’s 90 citywide branches. That included developing and implementing innovative digital media and online programs.

Most recently, Martin worked with Global Kids Inc., a New York-based nonprofit, to teach youth about immigration, social issues and New York City history.

“Just as they always have been, libraries continue to be critical institutions of lifelong learning and significant places in our communities,” Martin said. “I believe our library’s future must be directly connected to the learning goals of our community, and to that end I will be exploring all opportunities for vibrant partnerships, collaboration and new initiatives.”